‘RYAN EN BON SOLDAT’.
‘Ryan, the good soldier’ read the L’Equipe headline as they ran over the Irish players and their contributions to a tense Six Nations encounter in Paris.
The leading French sports outlet ran a comprehensive, seven-page special on France versus Ireland in their Sunday edition. The paper ran with a front page image of jubilant Irish players and their crushed French opponents under the headline ‘Cruel but Fair.
The general consensus, from their team of rugby analysts, was that Ireland were the better team and deserved to edge the hard-fought but often ugly contest.
L’Equipe is notoriously tough in its player ratings and so it proved again, the highest rated players were Yacouba Camara and Jefferson Poirot, who both scored 6/10.
Ireland had four players with a 6/10 rating – Keith Earls, James Ryan, Iain Henderson and sub Dan Leavy – while man-of-the-match went to matchwinner Johnny Sexton [7].
Both Le Parisien and L’Equipe were effusive in their praise for Sexton, not only as an on-field general but as a player who took on the responsibility of kicking the winning drop goal. Ryan was not far behind when it comes to gushing words. Reporter Fredereic Bernes wrote:
“On his first outing in the tournament, James Ryan was not shy. Used very often, he showed that he was more than capable at this level.”
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Ryan’s second row partnership with Henderson was also noted to be much more effective than the French duo of Sébastien Vahaamahina [3/10] and Arthur Iturria [4/10].
Not all of the Irish players scored well – Rory Best, Robbie Henshaw, Peter O’Mahony, Cian Healy, Jacob Stockdale and Josh van der Flier all got 4/10 from L’Equipe.
Le Parisien were not quite as ruthless in their ratings – try-scorer Teddy Thomas got 7/10 while only Vahaamahina got 4. The rest were in between and there were no ratings for the victorious Irish.
